Call for abstracts Cosmopolitanism and Philosophy in a Cosmopolitan Sense International Colloquium

21-22 October, 2011
The New Europe College
- Institute for Advanced Study -
Bucharest, Romania
Organizers: Tamara CĂRĂUȘ, Dan LAZEA, Camil Alexandru PÂRVU,
Áron TELEGDI-CSETRI
As an emerging field, cosmopolitanism has drawn much attention in recent years from a wide range of disciplines, located within the humanities, the social and political sciences, and beyond. However, this seems to be, in some respects, merely a late revival of an old – both ancient and modern – idea that has been overshadowed by the intermezzo of nationalism. All along this revival of thought, we may notice the recurrence of references to the Kantian philosophical tradition, highlighted by authors like Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas or John Rawls. The thematic range of this new cosmopolitanism – signaled by such topics as global justice, transnationalism, world civil society or global publics – seems in its turn to be intimately related with the Kantian core of this tradition. In this light, the special role attributed to philosophy by this thread of modernity becomes important once more: in a globally public use of reason, the dialogue beyond any local universalism is shaped by philosophy. Namely, philosophy – understood cosmopolitically, qua the free public use of reason, as against mere doctrine, or school philosophy – is the habitus that prepares the terrain for any rational debate, and hence, for any reflected cosmopolitan attitude.
We invite scholars from a variety of fields concerned with cosmopolitanism; we expect an exchange of ideas within and between both contemporary cosmopolitanism and the cosmopolitan tradition.
Colleagues interested in participating are kindly asked to send us a brief proposal (title and an abstract of about 300 words, please use rtf or pdf) describing the nature of their contribution, before the 15th of July, 2011.
Selected participants will be requested to submit the full paper of their presentation (2000-4000 words, please use rtf) until the 30th of September, 2011; the papers will be published in the conference proceedings volume.
The proposals should be sent to the initiators of this event, to the address: atelegdi@nec.ro and/or telegdi_a@yahoo.com .
Participation is free of charge.
More information will be announced at:
http://www.nec.ro/fundatia/proiecte/p261_colloquium.htm